Of Monsters & Lies
by Amanda N. Lupin
Summary: She should have been disturbed. Not only that this was the second time in 24-hours that she was spilling out her life's sad beginning, and to a sworn mortal enemy, but that Michael had had to fight and probe so much more to get it out of her.
1. Chapter 1

"Ah, you are awake," the prince of the lycans remarked, setting the now empty syringe back onto the metal surgical tray. "And you have been for sometime aware of my conversation with our new friend, have you not?" He had a perplexing amused grin as he stared at her, Selene remained silent. "Good, repeating oneself is such a tedious task, don't you think? Well, superfluous as introductions would now appear to be, I am Lucian," the lycan offered, extending a hand for her to shake. Selene backed as far away as her shackles would allow and eyed him with distrust. He chuckled, retracting his hand seeming neither surprised nor offended by her lack of diplomacy. "My dear girl if it were my intention to kill or harm you I should think I have had more than ample opportunity to do so while you were unconscious." Selene continued to shrink from him even as he backed away, glancing worriedly over to the table where Michael was strapped and motionless. "I haven't harmed him. He's merely sleeping off the elixir to prevent his change," he assured her softly.

"If you've no plans to harm or kill me, why keep me here? Why not release me? And Michael. You have his blood, that was what you wanted isn't it?"

"Nearly. Where is Raze," Lucian mumbled pacing. "You are the first worthy adversary I've encountered in centuries. The fact that you still live, well as much as your species can, should be cause enough to be grateful, I should think. But you have killed many of my kind, lived lifetimes under Viktor and his coven's brainwashing... I have little reason to doubt you would not dispatch me just as quickly, if not more so for this humiliation. Afterall, I've long lost the innocence of youth and good looks your new companion has, to recommend me." Selene snorted, pulling her chains taut and struggling against them. He shook his head. "You are quick, even strong or you should never have survived this long, but you fight a futile battle." Selene ignored him, refusing to meet his eyes and continuing to struggle. "You have her stubbornness. You are very much like her. Does he ever speak of her?"

"Viktor had no children. No daughter. The records..."

"Also say that I am six centuries dead, by Kraven's hand, or am I mistaken?" Selene made no reply, but still fought her bonds. "He will have burned all record of her then, as he did her body. How convenient that all council who knew of her are dead, but his pet Marcus of course."

"Amelia is..."

"Dead? Yes, I suspect so. Regrettable. All I wanted was a few vials of her blood, but I doubt she was very much willing to part with it, convincing as Raze may be," he smiled, a smile which did not falter for an instant even in the face of her glaring disapproval. "You think I am a monster." It was not a question. Merely a statement of fact, and what's more, Lucien seemed little disturbed by it. "So you know what separates we Lycans from the beasts before us? We choose who we kill. It is that simple fact-that we can be selective, discriminate, discrete in our dispatches that has kept us hidden under your coven's very nose for these many hundred years. Can you Death Dealers make any such claim? No, you kill us all. How the war began, whose fault it is... to me it was Viktor killing my bride, to Viktor my defilement of his daughter, and the others go along with the motions as benefits their own needs and desires. It is all but a matter of perspective. To us, it is you, who are monsters." Selene said nothing, drinking in the cooly spoken words, barely taking in that the Lycan prince had seated himself on the cold, damp concrete across from her to appear less of a threat, unaware of subconsciously letting her guard drop as he spoke. "But enough philosophy for now. I have too long been monopolizing this conversation. How is you came to find yourself in mine and Viktor's war?"

She should have been disturbed. Not only that this was the second time in 24-hours that she was spilling out her life's sad beginning, and to a sworn mortal enemy, but that Michael had had to fight and probe so much more to get it out of her, where now it seemed to spill like waves over the shore. There was something about him though, this was not the Lucian everyone in the coven spoke of with such great hatred and nearly fearful reverence. Sitting here, talking to him, looking into those deep and intense brown eyes, she could almost too easily forget the touch of cool metal wrapped around her wrists, that she had spent the largest part of her unnatural life hunting and killing his kind and descendants. He was a man who had loved and lost, and she a woman who had loved and lost. So vastly different, yet kindred in spirit.


	2. Chapter 2

Selene couldn't move. She was still shackled of course, but she could not have moved if she had wanted to. Kraven's cold, pitiless words, cutting into what now seemed like deafening silence. She could swear her inhuman heart had stopped its beating. _Silver Nitrate, bet you weren't expecting that_, he taunted. That bastard. Here was the monster, she thought, turning hate-filled icy blue eyes to him. Kraven, the vampires, her, not the lycans, not Lucian. Yet it was not Kraven's body that lay fading fast on the concrete, growing cold.

"He was helping you!" Kraven's maniacal laugh echoed through the make-shift barracks and lab, as he kicked the fallen Lycan's body. Lucian scarcely winced and biting his lip managed not to make a sound, even in death he seemed resolved to keep his dignity. His breathing was shallow, barely audible, and growing weaker.

"And he was useful," Kraven replied callus. "For a time. He was a Lycan, Selene, they were always meant to serve us. And now he's served his purpose." Selene recoiled as he kneeled to release her from her bonds. "Don't tell me you feel sorry for him. Look what he did to you."

"He didn't do anything to me."

"He had you tied up, who knows..."

"He wouldn't have hurt me." Echoes of metal slamming, of many footsteps trickled down the tunnels so that he froze mid-rising to his feet once more, rigid.

"He will kill you," Selene taunted, and he would fully deserve it, she thought satisfactorily.

"You're coming with me," he ordered, yanking her to her feet.

"There is nothing you could offer me that would entice me to follow you anywhere," Selene growled, spitting on his outstretched hand. She knew it was coming, but let it happen, did not move as his outstretched hand slapped her cheek.

"So be it," Kraven hissed angrily, turning from her to Michael who seeing her in trouble had changed in spite of the elixir and broken from his bonds to protect her, was running toward them both.

"No." Shots echoed and Michael fell to the floor, crumpling against the cold concrete wall.

"Bite him," a weak voice urged softly. She knew that voice, immediately, though it had scarcely been an hour since she'd first come to know it. Lucian. He was still alive? But then, he had taken not two, but three pure silver bullets when he had attempted to retrieve Michael. He was the eldest of the shapeshifter, the first. Perhaps he was stronger... Veins full of silver marred his face. He was alive, but it was clearly a tremulous hold. "Bite him," he coughed.

Michael's body felt cold as she cradled his neck, drawing it nearer to her lips and her growing fangs. Kraven sensing the immediacy of the situation drew his gun to her head. With fading strength Lucian yelled to warn her and lunged forward, grabbing Kraven's leg. Deep brown eyes met pleadingly with electric blue ones, before sinking his blade into the traitor's leg. Kraven howled in pain, stumbling and instead shooting Michael full in the chest with two more shots. Michael's body shook violently in her arms, blood vessels bursting and the rancid smell of death and decay poured from his mouth. Selene continued to draw from him, a moment longer. It was too late. Lucian lay slumped back where Kraven had thrown him on opposite wall, resigned to his fate. His vision, the blending of Vampire and Lycan lay dead at her feet in front of him.

"You can finally claim my death, cousin," he rasped, smiling slightly at the grim irony of it all. Kraven wincing, drew his gun back once more. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Furious, Kraven threw the empty gun where it skittered away across the floor and began closing in on the lycan. Selene pounced with all her weight and strength, throwing him aside, before scrambling to her feet in front of Lucian.

"What the hell are you doing," Kraven shouted angrily, jumping back to his feet.

"Kraven!" Victor's yell echoed not far off, and Kraven froze once more, considering the pair, before tearing off down the tunnel away from his approaching, furious elder.

"Fly away, run fast little cousin," Lucian chuckled, coughing silvery dark blood.

Selene returned to him, wiping the blood from his chin. He shook his head attempting to push her away, but finding himself too weak for the effort.

"Go." Selene shook her head. "You bit him. No one would believe it was Kraven."

"No," Selene shook her head.

"You must. Leave me."

"Selene?" Victor was getting closer, there was less echoing. She had perhaps ten minutes, at best, before he would reach them. Selene crouched over the lycan, and forced his mouth to open, pressing her lips to his before releasing Michael's blood into his mouth. Lucian choked, but she held him mouth as she pulled away forcing him to swallow it, as she pushed down the collar of his jacket to expose his neck.

"Wha..." he began, voice scarcely louder than a whisper, but she never gave him the chance to finish before she had sunk her teeth into the tender flesh of his bared neck. With strength he had long thought lost, Lucian grabbed her trembling body, which now seemed smaller, more fragile, and managed to pull the vampire off of him. She shook in his arms before vomiting, nearly completely silver with traces of blood on the concrete beside them. Small cold hands wrapped tremulously around him, as her body continued to shake.

"Foolish girl, what have you done," he whispered softly. She could have escaped. Now Victor would kill them both. Mimicking her movements earlier, he gently wiped the silver from her lips and chin, before suddenly halting. His digits had blackened and were slowly lengthening, and the dark pigmentation was spreading. My God, it worked. It had worked. Neither vampire, nor lycan, but stronger than both. He could take Victor. Could finally have his revenge, he thought wildly, howling as bones snapped and grew.

Victor would pay. He could hear him now, he was running. Would reach them any moment... But suddenly he felt the woman in his arms fall limp against his shoulder, and the thought was subdued.

She had saved him. Who could say why, but she had. There could be no doubt of it. He: Lucian, prince of the lycans, would be dead if not for her. Would have died here in this underworld, never having avenged her, his Sonya, were it not for this death-dealer. The silver wouldn't kill her, but it would do enough, and if Victor found her like this... Allowing himself a singular howl of frustration, Lucian took off down one of the many halls, disappearing into the darkness, carrying his unlikely savior in his arms. Victor would have to wait a little longer..


End file.
